Orsa-class torpedo boat

Torpedo boat Pegaso
Class overview
Operators:
In commission: 1936–1964
Completed: 4
Lost: 2
General characteristics [1]
Type: Torpedo boat
Displacement:
  • 840 long tons (850 t) standard
  • 1,575 long tons (1,600 t) full load
Length: 82.5 m (270 ft 8 in)
Beam: 9.69 m (31 ft 9 in)
Draught: 3.74 m (12 ft 3 in)
Propulsion:
  • 2 shaft steam turbines
  • 2 boilers
  • 16,000 hp (11,900 kW)
Speed: 28 knots (32 mph; 52 km/h)
Complement: 116
Armament:
  • 2 × 100 mm (3.9 in) guns
  • 10 × 20 mm (0.79 in) anti-aircraft guns
  • 8 × 13.2 mm (0.52 in) AA machine guns
  • 4 × 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes[2]
  • 6 × depth charge throwers

The Orsa class were a group of large torpedo boats or destroyer escorts built for the Italian Navy in the late 1930s. They were an enlarged version of the Spica-class torpedo boat, with more endurance and a greater depth charge load but less powerful machinery and a lighter gun armament. The surviving pair were rebuilt as anti-submarine frigates in the 1950s.

Ships

Ship builder Launched Operational History
Pegaso BS Napoletani 8 December 1936 Sank British submarines HMS Upholder, HMS Undaunted, HMS Urge (or possibly struck a mine)[3] and HMS Thorn. She was part of the screen of destroyers and torpedo boats escorting a four-freighter convoy to Tripoli on 26 May 1941,[4] when two Blenheim bombers were shot down.[5] She also took part in the shooting down of a Beaufort bomber and a Beaufighter while escorting another convoy on 21 August 1942.[6] The Pegaso was one of the most successful Axis anti-submarine warships of World War II. Scuttled 11 September 1943
Procione BS Napoletani 31 January 1937 Scuttled 11 September 1943
Orione CNR Palermo 21 April 1937 Survived the war and served in the post-war Marina Militare. Decommissioned 1964
Orsa CNR Palermo 21 March 1937 Along with the Spica-class Climene, she shot down three attacking British aircraft on 24 July 1942 while escorting the transport Vettor Pisani, which was beached and lost after the airstrike. Survived the war and served in the post-war Marina Militare. Decommissioned 1964

References

  1. ↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting ships 1922-1946
  2. ↑ Marina Militare
  3. ↑ Barrow Submariners Association
  4. ↑ Naval Events, May 1941, Part 2 of 2
  5. ↑ Shores, Cull & Malizia, p. 223
  6. ↑ Shores, Cull & Malizia (1991).Malta: The Spitfire Year 1942. Grub Street, p. 524. ISBN 0-948817-16-X
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